I wanted to write about my trip to R2UK to say thank you to everyone for sorting it out and letting me come.

I saw a little track droid at Scarborough sci-fi this year and Tim said I could have a go on it but I had to go home before I had a chance. Since then it has been really exciting to build one with my Dad. Ours is green and black and called D3 5A or Andy for short. I am making one as well that is going to look like a pokeball from Pokemon and I want it to fire a pokeball from its eye.

Dad said that we were going to race the track droid at R2UK this year, so I wanted to come along and race as well. We even had to move our holiday 2 days forward, so we were home in time.

I missed the 1^st day and came on day 2 & 3 which was Saturday and Sunday.

In the track droid race, I came fifth and every other track droid racer was 20/30 years older than me. I even beat Uncle Julian, but his droid broke. Apart from Andy my favourite track droid was Wrigley. I really wanted to win the trophy but it was lots of fun driving in the final and it was Sam’s birthday and the trophy was broken and glued together anyway, I might ask Dad if he can print me a 5^th place trophy. We sang happy birthday to Sam. When we got home from R2UK me & Dad put a boost in Andy and a battery indicator, he goes much faster now, I did tell Dad he should have done it before the race but he says we ran out of time.

There was a treasure hunt to do as well, we had to search EVERYWHERE for pictures of people from star wars and there was a prize for the person that found the most. I met a new friend, his name is Jack, his Dad is called Wiz, we played together for most of the weekend and we teamed up and worked together to find them. We found 27, someone said there were 28 altogether. We got a sticker book and stickers from Solo each for finding them. 

I had pizza and chips for lunch and a Fanta because Mummy wasn’t there and fish and chips for tea then we talked to some people on the TV. Dad said they were in California but I’m sure that they said they were in America. They were a little bit interesting but I played a game on my phone for some of it.

I went to a talk on droids in the movies which was like a movie itself, I saw Poe jump over a mouse droid. I missed a bit because I needed a wee in the middle but Dad said I didn’t miss much. I didn’t go into the next talk as it was about making things dirty which didn’t sound as good. I let dad go in with Uncle Julio, they said I already know how to make things dirty anyway.

Everyone was really friendly and one man even let me ride on his droid, Dad looked really worried till he saw that the man said it was ok. Another man let me inside his droid.

I had a really good weekend and am really looking forward to going again next year. Dad says as long as we know when the day will be before Christmas we can wait till then to book our holiday so we won’t miss it.

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Check the Forum and Facebook for more information builders! 

This year was the 31^st year of Wings and Wheels and marked several years of the R2 Builders and Dalek builders attending.  The event started on a chilly Saturday morning which warmed up by early lunchtime. 

It had a variety of RC models from tanks to boats to trucks, although the main focus was on RC planes, and there were lots of planes.  

The planes vary from props to EDF (Electric Ducted Fan) to jet engines.

There was even an 87% scale RC plane.

Steve Martin sorted out the R2 Builders and Dalek Builders and Vince Martyn brought his caravan and awnings for us to use as shelter if required. 

On the Sat as well as Steve, Vince, Chris Osbourne and Oliver Steeples attended with their droids to show off to the public.  On Sunday Chris and Oliver were replaced with Adam and his Wall-E.

 For anyone interested in RC this is a great event, although come with your shopping list so you know what to buy from all the stands.

Reported By Oliver Steeples.

The R2 Builders return to the excellent Sci-Fi Scarborough Annual Convention! The event was over the whole weekend (9th -10th April) at the World famous Spa Complex. This histrionic venue is truly beautiful with multiple halls and connecting corridors filled with stores and costume groups, guaranteed to please.

Another first event for the builders, this time an invite to attend the Scarborough Sci-Fi Convention, the event spanned over the entire weekend of the 14^th and 15^th of March.

The location was extraordinarily picturesque with it being nestled along the beautiful if rather chilly North Yorkshire coastline and overlooked by the equally impressive ruins of the 11^th century Scarborough castle.

The event itself was held within The Spa complex on the Scarborough Seafront, an unusual shaped building, but as it turned out, perfect “droiding” territory with lots of slopes connecting the lower floor rooms and lifts for mounting top floor droid assaults.

Scarborough Sci-Fi was a very well thought out event with a wide range of traders and signers from all genres of the Sci-Fi world including some of the more rarely seen artists.

The upper floor held a real treat for Gerry Anderson fans with a large section of the floor being dedicated to all aspects of his TV shows ranging from the legendary Thunderbirds right through to the more obscure Space precinct.

The weekend was a great fun packed event with plenty to see and do, whether it be grabbing an autograph or two or just watching the plethora of cosplayers showing off their brilliant homemade costumes.

The UK R2D2 builders received a very warm welcome both by organisers and visitors alike and the club members were bombarded with questions and compliments in equal measure for the duration of the event with some of the smaller visitors being so fascinated by these little droids that they spent so much time asking “why?” and “how?” that I’m sure their parents must have missed great chunks of the event.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable event, the Artic temperatures were quickly forgotten with the warmth of the hospitality of the North Yorkshire people.

The Builders Club will always remember Scarborough Sci-Fi with great fondness and we look forward for next year!

  Reported by: Colin Barker

On the 23rd of September 2013, the UK R2 Builders attended the National Space Center which held a convention to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of Return of the Jedi!